Thank you, Lillie, for awarding me the Happy 101 Award. As she puts it: “To accept the award, I am to list ten things that make me happy, then pass the award to five other bloggers. Our society so often focuses on the negative rather than positive, on what’s wrong…
Auto-Renewal Notification Review
I recently received a copy of Food Network magazine–to which I tried a trial subscription a year ago–with this letter pasted to the cover. “Important Subscriber Notice” is emblazoned across the top, with a warning that, “This is a reminder that your current subscription term is ending, but as a…
MM: Tighter Prose is Brighter Prose
You’ve heard writers telling you to eliminate extra words, to tighten up your prose, right? It’s so easy to write with careless zeal, lassoing every word we come across, willy-nilly, just to rope it into our work. If 50 words are good, 60 must be better. There’s no such thing…
MM: Don’t Say That!
No, I’m not saying you can’t use the word “that” at all. It’s such a useful word. In fact, I love “that.” It’s so strong and versatile, it can do almost anything. It can be a pronoun. (“That‘s my cousin over there.” “I like the bigger painting better than that…
Do You Have Too Many Distractions?
We live in a society that adores multi-tasking. We watch television while we cook. We listen to the radio (or MP3s, or DVDs, or CDs, or whatever) while we drive. We talk on the phone while we iron. We text while walking the dog. We read while we brush our…
Sometimes You Don’t Need Words
As much as it kills me to admit it, sometimes the best salesmanship doesn’t involve any words at all. This ad just about kills me, it’s so perfect.
Are You a Bad Writer?
I’m a bad writer. I don’t mean that I write badly. You can disagree, of course, but I don’t have any real doubts about my writing ability. My ability to string words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, is pretty reliable. I have weaknesses, but even in unfamiliar writing territory, I…
Grammar Day
It’s National Grammar Day again … and, really, one which can be celebrated by any nationality. And what better way than to sing the theme song? “March Forth: The Grammar Song”
Channel Your Inner Royalty
Like many girls, when I was little, I wanted to be a princess. I wanted to wear the floaty skirts.I wanted the jeweled crown–gold, of course, to go with my then-blonde hair. I wanted birds to help me get dressed in the morning, and to go to balls.I wanted to…
Great Subscription Offer
Now, THIS is a direct mail offer I can get behind. This is a subscription offer from National Geographic and is one I think did just about everything right. The top portion states “Preferred Account Order Form.” See? No attempts to mislead me. It’s telling me that I would be…